scholarly journals Experience of Studying Vessel Forms of the Nikolayevskiy Burial Ground of the Bronze Age Using the ‘Envelope’ and Geometric Morphometry Methods

2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (7) ◽  
pp. 21-36
Author(s):  
Ilshat I. Bakhshiev ◽  
Egor V. Bersenev
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Morphological Characteristics ◽  
Principal Component ◽  
Southern Urals ◽  
Burial Ground ◽  
The Urals ◽  
Geometric Morphometry ◽  
Envelope Method ◽  
Cultural Component ◽  
The Bronze Age

The article considers the possibilities of the ‘envelope’ and geometric morphometry methods exemplified by the analysis of 47 whole forms of vessels from the Nikolayevskiy burial ground of Srubnaya culture from Bashkir Fore-Urals. Purpose. The purpose of this work is to reveal the morphological characteristics of the ceramic complex of the necropolis with the isolation of the reference forms of vessels using the ‘envelope’ method and methods of geometric morphometry. Consideration of their possibilities will allow for the further construction of a general typology of the vessels of Srubnaya culture of the Urals. The authors are convinced that only the publication of the results of the study of the morphology of the vessels of individual complexes, processed according to a unified technique, will make it possible to proceed with the study of ceramics of the Late Bronze Age cultures of the entire Southern Urals. The use of the ‘envelope’ method proposed by Clive Orton made it possible to highlight the leading forms of the considered collection. The obtained classification scheme includes six groups of pot-shaped vessels and four groups of jar-shaped vessels. Results. The results of the principal component analysis allow for the conclusion that the majority of the sample vessels are similar to each other in general proportions. A small group of vessels of Srubnaya culture low in heigh and a number of vessels with a foreign cultural component, in particular those with features characteristic of Alakul culture, stand out from the rest. There is no clear connection between the distribution of pottery groups among burials and mounds. Only two points stand out. The finds of vessels of the first group of pots prevail in the embankment of mound 1, while pots of the second group appear only in burials of mounds 3 and 5. In mound 3, the finds of these vessels are concentrated in the burials of the northwestern sector, which probably reflects a certain stage in the functioning of the burial ground. Conclusion. The studied variations of pot forms in the analyzed collection, the presence of vessels with the so-called early-Srubnaya signs, and their mutual occurrence with the vessels of the Srubno-Alakul appearance, reflect the processes of the influence of the Alakul pottery stereotypes on the dominant Srubnaya component of the Urals.

scholarly journals NEW DATA ON THE DENTAL CHARACTERISTICS EXHIBITED BY THE POPULATION OF THE KULAYKA CULTURE IN THE NOVOSIBIRSK OB AREA

2019 ◽  
pp. 140-151
Author(s):  
M.S. Kishkurno ◽  
A.V. Sleptsova
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Standard Procedure ◽  
Morphological Characteristics ◽  
Early Iron Age ◽  
Forest Steppe ◽  
Dental Morphology ◽  
Burial Ground ◽  
Intergroup Comparison ◽  
The Bronze Age

The article covers the results of a study on the odontological series from the Kamenny Mys burial ground (3rd–2nd centuries BC). In this work, we set out to study the genesis of the Kulay population of the Early Iron Age in the Novosibirsk Ob area. The main relations of the population with the groups of adjacent territories, as well as the nature of their interaction with the local groups, were determined. The odontological series from the Kamenny Mys burial ground includes the teeth of 24 individuals: 12 males, 6 females and 10 adult individuals whose gender could not be determined. The anthropological materials were examined according to a standard procedure, which involves the description of the tooth crown morphology considering the archaic features of the dental morphology. Also, an intergroup comparative analysis was performed via the method of the principal component analysis using the program STATISTICA version 10.0. It was established that the dental characteristics exhibited by the Kulayka population reveal signs of mixed European-Mongoloid formation with a significant predominance of the Eastern component. We compared the morphological characteristics of the sample with data obtained for the populations of the Bronze Age and the Early Iron Age. The intergroup comparison revealed the closest connection between the Bolshaya Rechka culture and the Kulayka group. The studied material provides anthropological confirmation of the interaction between Kulayka (taiga) and Bolshaya Rechka traditions (steppe), drawing on the data about the burial rite and ceramic complexes. The comparison of the Kulayka series with Bronze Age samples suggests that the forest-steppe populations occupying the territories of the Novosibirsk and Tomsk Ob and the Ob-Irtysh areas had no effect on the genesis of the Kulayka population. We suppose that the origins of the Kulayka population in the Novosibirsk Ob area should be traced to the populations from the West Siberian taiga of the Bronze Age, which is significantly complicated by the lack of sufficiently complete and representative series dating back to the specified period from the territory of the Middle Ob area. Further accumulation of anthropological material from the Middle Ob area will provide the opportunity to trace the genesis of taiga populations of the Early Iron Age.

scholarly journals Cultural attribution vs radiocarbon chronology (on the example of materials from the Bronze Age burial ground of Shatmantamak I)

2020 ◽  
pp. 31-39
Author(s):  
A.V. Epimakhov ◽  
A.D. Tairov ◽  
M.G. Epimakhova
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Isotope Analysis ◽  
Specific Area ◽  
Steppe Zone ◽  
Southern Urals ◽  
Burial Ground ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
The Southern Urals ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
The Bronze Age

The article presents the results of excavations at the Shatmantamak I burial ground located in steppe zone of the Southern Urals (south-west of the Republic of Bashkortostan, Russia). The materials of the site combine the features of the Late Bronze Age Srubnaya and Alakul archaeological cultures dated to the first half of the 2nd mil. cal BC. With this work, we aimed to test the interpretation possibilities for the obtained materials, proceed-ing from their chronological sequence, rather than cultural attribution. Three mounds comprising seven burial structures of the Bronze Age (three above ground and four burial pits) have been excavated. The main procedure of treating the dead was inhumation on the left side (with the single exception on the right side) with their heads orientated towards the northern sector with deviations to the east. All graves contained single adult individuals, except one with the skeletons of two children. One of the burials is clearly distinctive, with the deceased set in sitting position. The grave goods included ceramic vessels and a single bone pommel. A series of radiocarbon dates (n = 4), stable nitrogen and carbon isotope analysis, along with the analysis of the context, allowed us to propose the scenario of utilisation of the site in the Bronze Age. The sequence of building of kurgans and individ-ual burials has been determined. For a long period (20th–17th c. cal BC), they combined features of the Alakul and Srubnaya cultural traditions within the same cemetery, or even mound. Syncretic sites represent a typical phe-nomenon for the Late Bronze Age of the Southern Urals and adjacent territories. Despite the differences in the chronology and cultural features (pottery and funeral rite) of the Shatmantamak I burial ground, a high stability of the nutrition system has been revealed, which was based on the products of complex husbandry. This brings us to the assumption that the identified cultural mosaicism was determined not by the mobility and interaction of groups with different traditions, but by their joint or parallel habitation in a specific area.

scholarly journals Late Bronze Age anthropological materials from the Nepljuevski kurgan cemetery

2020 ◽  
pp. 133-148 ◽  
Author(s):  
M.K. Karapetian ◽  
N.A. Leybova ◽  
S.V. Sharapova
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Southern Urals ◽  
The Body ◽  
European Ancestry ◽  
Burial Ground ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
The People ◽  
Tripolye Culture ◽  
The Bronze Age ◽  
Culture Sample

The body of works on craniological and paleoodontological analyses of the materials from the Bronze Age sites of the Southern Trans-Urals still has not clarified the question of the genesis of the people who lived in this area. This is partly due to fragmentary state of the available materials, so that publication of new data appears highly relevant. This paper deals with the results of craniological and dental analyses of an osteological sample from two kurgans of the Nepljuevski burial ground, excavated between 2015 and 2017 by a Russian-German archaeological expedition. The burial ground is located 300 km south-west of Chelyabinsk city, in Kartalinsky dis-trict in the steppes of the Southern Trans-Urals. The recovered materials are dated to the Late Bronze Age and attributed to the Srubnaya-Alakul Culture variant. Materials and methods. Metric description of 5 male and 6 fe-male crania is given. The dental sample comprised remains of 14 children and adolescents and 12 adults. Stan-dard craniometric and paleoodontological protocols were used. Statistical procedures included principal compo-nent analysis (PCA) for craniometric traits and correspondence analysis for odontological traits. Results. Gener-ally, the crania show morphology characteristic for the European (Caucasian) groups. The male crania are ho-mogenous in such traits as narrow, vividly protruding nose and a pronounced horizontal profiling. The sample is dominated by individuals with a high facial height. Females and males generally show morphological similarities, but females, on average, have a relatively higher braincase, wider and lower orbits, a relatively wider nose, and slightly less pronounced horizontal profiling. The odontological analysis is in line with the cranoimetric data indi-cating European ancestry. One of the distinct characteristics of this sample is the presence of «enamel pearls» — a usually rare trait — in 5 out of 12 individuals, which may indicate an increased percentage of biological relatives in it. Conclusion. Overall, the crania from kurgan 1 find analogies among gracilized high-faced forms widespread in Southern Urals and Kazakhstan during the Bronze Age, often linked to the southern ancestry. The attribution of the Nepljuevski sample to the circle of gracile forms is indicated by the results of odontological analysis, which revealed its proximity to the Tripolye culture sample.

scholarly journals Non-metric dental analysis of a Bronze Age population from the Armenian Plateau

2013 ◽  
Vol 76 (1) ◽  
pp. 63-82 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anahit Yu. Khudaverdyan
Keyword(s):  
Central Asia ◽  
Bronze Age ◽  
Principal Component ◽  
Biological Distance ◽  
The Urals ◽  
Observer Error ◽  
Tripolye Culture ◽  
Dental Traits ◽  
Armenian Highland ◽  
The Bronze Age

Abstract The aim of this study is to assess the biological distance between populations from the Armenian highland, Georgia, Eastern Europe, Central Asia and Siberia on the basis of the frequency of non-metric dental traits. It is well known that these traits are characterized by high inter-population differentiation, low sexual dimorphism, and their recording is affected by relatively small intra and inter-observer error. These traits are successfully used in the description and explanation of ethno-genetic processes. Comparative analysis was performed on 30 populations, and the frequency of non-metric dental traits in all populations was determined by principal component analysis. Based on our bio-distance results, we suggest there was a degree of genetic proximity among inland populations of the Armenian Plateau and Transcaucasian area at the beginning of the Bronze Age. The Armenian Plateau and Georgian samples and all those from Kalmykia (Pit Grave culture), the Ukraine (Tripolye culture), the Urals (Sintashtinskaya, Timber Grave cultures), the Volga region (Pit Grave, Balanovo, Fatianovo, Potapovsky cultures) and Central Asia (Gonur- Depe) exhibited close affinities. This conclusion is consistent with that reported by other bio-distance studies examining non-metric cranial traits and Armenian Plateau samples.

Towards a refined chronology for the Bronze Age of the southern Urals, Russia

Antiquity ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 81 (312) ◽  
pp. 353-367 ◽  
Author(s):  
B.K. Hanks ◽  
A.V. Epimakhov ◽  
A.C. Renfrew
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Southern Urals ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Social Changes ◽  
Crucial Importance ◽  
The Southern Urals ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Central Russia ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Bronze Age

Cultural interactions in central Russia are famously complex, but of very wide significance. Within the social changes they imply are contained key matters for Europe and Asia: the introduction of Indo-Europeans and other languages, the horse and the chariot, and the transition towards nomadism. Of crucial importance to future research is a sturdy chronological framework and in this contribution the authors offer 40 new radiocarbon dates spanning the conventional Bronze Age in the southern Urals.

scholarly journals Bracelet from an Elunino burial at the Teleut Vzvoz-I site

2020 ◽  
pp. 5-14
Author(s):  
I.A. Valkov
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Trace Analysis ◽  
Western Siberia ◽  
Average Diameter ◽  
Raw Material ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
Forest Steppe ◽  
Burial Ground ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
The Bronze Age

The article studies a stone bead bracelet found in an Early Bronze Age burial of the Elunino archaeological culture during the excavation of the Teleut Vzvoz-I burial ground (heterogeneous in time) in the south of Western Siberia (Forest-Steppe Altai). According to a series of calibrated radiocarbon dates, the Elunino burial ground at the Teleut Vzvoz-I site was used in the 22nd–18th centuries BC. The artefact under study was found in double burial No. 16 of the indicated burial ground, on the wrist of an adult (gender is not established). The bracelet in-cludes 66 stone beads, as well as one stone base. This piece of jewellery is unique in terms of technique, as well as the sacral meaning embedded in it. The ornament found on the beads bears no analogies to those discovered in the well-known Bronze Age archaeological sites of Western and Eastern Siberia. The present publication con-siders the morphological and raw material characteristics of the bracelet, as well as the specifics of its production and use. In this study, trace analysis was performed, i.e. the analysis of macro- and micro-traces left on the sur-face of the item as a result of its production and subsequent use. All traces were examined using an MBS-10 stereoscopic microscope at a magnification of ×16–56. It was found that some of the beads in the bracelet were made of serpentinite. The nearest sources of this stone are at least 250–300 km away from Teleut Vzvoz-I. The beads are made by counter-drilling, drilling of blind holes, polishing and grinding. This find is unique due to orna-mental compositions found on several beads in the form of oblique notches on side faces. The extremely small size of the beads (average diameter of 3.3 mm; average thickness of 1.4 mm) makes the pattern invisible to the naked eye. Thus, it is concluded that the ornament had a sacred meaning, and the bracelet itself served as an amulet. Despite no finds of ornamented bracelets dating back to the Bronze Age in Western Siberia and adjacent territories, typologically the bracelet bears analogies to the antiquities of the Okunevo culture, the Yamna cultural and historical community, as well as in the materials of the Bronze Age archaeological site of Gonur Depe (Turk-menistan). The study of the bracelet demonstrates the relevance of performing trace analysis of such items from other archaeological sites.

scholarly journals Three examples of geometrical morphometry employment for earthenware vessel shapes study (On the opportunities and limitations of method)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Е.В. Суханов ◽  
Е.В. Волкова
Keyword(s):  
Statistical Analysis ◽  
Bronze Age ◽  
Modern Method ◽  
Burial Ground ◽  
The Third ◽  
Culturally Different ◽  
Source Data ◽  
Research Problems ◽  
Technology Of Production ◽  
The Bronze Age

The geometrical morphometry represents a modern method of statistical analysis of objects’ morphology. The article is dedicated to discussion of opportunities and limitations of geometrical morphometry methods for study of earthenware shapes. The article deals with three examples of geometrical morphometry use for analysis of vessel shapes study in solving research problems of various complexity. Every of these examples differs in amount of known source data on objects of study. In the first example results of analysis of two types of early Byzantine amphorae forms are considered. By dint of geometrical morphometry it became possible to establish legitimacy of these types detachment and to explain that the principal differences between these types consist in the general proportionality of vessels. In the second example 252 shapes of vessels from the Balanovo burial ground of the Bronze Age are analyzed. An attempt is undertaken to detach peculiarities of shapes specific to two culturally different groups of population that left the burial ground. We succeeded in solving the task with the aid of geometrical morphometry in about a half of cases. In the third example an attempt is made to determine earthenware produced by different potters. For that purpose 30 vessels made by 6 professional potters of high skills and 15 vessels made by three potters who had no stable skills of earthenware production were used. In result of geometrical morphometry method application several conditional arrays of vessels have been detached. As it happens, vessels that have virtually nothing in common in their morphology, technology of production and skill level of potters who made the vessels allotted these arrays. Data considered allow making the conclusion that the biggest efficiency of geometrical morphometry application is achieved in search of peculiarities built in general proportionality of earthenware shapes. But an inefficiency of geometrical morphometry method is marked in solution of more complicated tasks related to analysis of detailed peculiarities of vessel outlines. The results obtained put in question possibilities to consider the geometrical morphometry as a sound method of archeological vessel shapes study.

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